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Thursday, December 30, 2010

Feeling unwanted and like “a sacrificial lamb”, yet still undeterred, Brian Rolston is ready to return to the Devils and do whatever is asked of him.

Rolston, 37, does not hide that he was hoping to be claimed off re-entry waivers by another team, but knows his contract, which has an additional season left on it after this season with an actual salary of $5 million and cap hit of $5,062,500 – was too big an obstacle, even at half price.

“It’s disappointing I didn’t get picked up for sure,” Rolston told me. “The fact of the matter is my second year was the sticking point at $2.5 (million). You saw in free agency this summer that teams aren’t really willing. I think they ask about the money before they ask about who the player is. It’s the economic times. It’s disappointing for sure. I was hoping to get a new start somewhere, but I’m just going to continue on here.

“I’m in no different position than I was at the beginning. I’m not sure if this was all necessary, but it’s the business.”

After three days off the ice, Rolston will skate on his own Friday morning and will not play in the Devils' game Friday evening (5 p.m. start) against Atlanta, but will join them on their flight to Carolina after the game and hopes to play against the Hurricanes Saturday night.

"I wish I was playing tomorrow. Supposedly, I've got to get in shape," Rolston said, referring to comments made by head coach Jacques Lemaire that he is not in shape.

Rolston had tried to remain his usual positive attitude throughout this process, but it is clear that it has started to get to him. He believes the Devils could have saved everyone a lot of trouble if they had a better idea ahead of time if any team was actually interested in claiming him off regular waivers or re-entry waivers.

“It’s the business of it,” he said. “I make a lot of money and I guess these are the things that you have to go through.”

Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello would not discuss whether he would consider putting Rolston through waivers and re-entry waivers again later this season. Rolston doesn’t want to have to go through that again – or put his family through it – unless the Devils are certain ahead of time that a team will claim him.

“I certainly hope that if I have to go through re-entry again that there is a team up front that has said that they’re ready to take me,” he said.

Rolston said his agent, Steve Bartlett, had discussions with some teams that showed interest, but the money got in the way.

“I was still hopeful,” Rolston said. “My agent was working hard with a couple of teams that were interested. Obviously, if I didn’t have the next year, I would have been picked up for sure, but it is what it is. I’m still hopeful that maybe a trade can be made where I can be in on it.”

Rolston said the Devils are still allowing his agent to talk to other teams about a possible trade. At this point, however, he’s still a Devils and will resume playing games for the team after it tried to get rid of him twice – once two weeks ago when they placed him on regular waivers and again this week when he went on re-entry waivers.

Is that going to be weird for him?

“It’s no different than the first time,” he said. “Your team, obviously, was trying to get rid of you. Is that weird? Of course it is to a certain extent. But on the other hand, at this point it’s a job and I’m going to do my job. I’m going to come in, I’m going to play my hardest and go from there. I have more integrity than (to not do that).”

It is possible that Rolston could help his chances of being moved by coming back and playing well.

“Obviously, this doesn’t do a whole lot for your confidence,” he said. “But I’m going to come back and I’m going to work hard and, hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to try to produce. That’s what I’m going to try to do.”

Rolston said he has received a lot of support from his Devils’ teammates during this process, which has been helpful.

“I received texts and calls from players,” he said. “They’re very supportive. There’s not a guy in our dressing room that’s not feeling some pain. Let’s put it that way. I’ve been put out there as the sacrificial lamb so to speak. It’s disappointing for sure, but it comes with the business and I make a lot of money, so you grin and bear it and just take it day by day.”

If part of the idea of the moves involving Rolston was to put the rest of the team on notice, Rolston believes that part was successful.

“I don’t think there’s a guy in our dressing room that feels comfortable right now,” he said. “My situation doesn’t help. That goes without saying. I think since the beginning of the year everybody was wondering if it was them that was going and I was no different. I’m sure that if I didn’t get injured early in the season (he had sports hernia surgery on Oct. 14) that this may have happened earlier. I’m just speculating on that.

“Either way, we had cap problems. Were we going to play with three lines? But that’s just speculating.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.